John S.

Gero, Scott Chase and Mike Rosenman (eds), CAADRIA2001,

Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition, University of Sydney, 2001, pp. 241-249.

BOUNDARY DEBATES

Extensions from Analog to Digital Spaces

DIRK DONATH, THORSTEN M. LOEMKER AND KATHARINA

RICHTER
Bauhaus Universitaet
Germany

Abstract: Our research focuses on the evaluation of digital space and its
prospective use as a functional space for future architectural planning
tasks. Through the existence of digital technologies the authors consider
that architects will have to expose themselves to new - planning tasks,
which are not comparable to traditional architectural duties. This
requires us to rethink architectural terms and their meaning in digital
space. It demands us to extend the borders within which we think, work
and design. The paper presents exemplary projects that demonstrate the
applicability and added value of these mergers as an extension of solid
architectural buildings. Focus is laid onto digital architecture that either
extends its analog counterpart by providing functionality that does not
exist in the “real” world or which doesn´t have an analog counterpart at
all. The paper aims at the definition of new tasks for architects to be
developed. It describes methods and strategies architects have to be
aware of to be capable to offer an extended field of activity. Finally it
presents exemplary projects which show the possible added value clients
could gain from buildings to be established as mergers of analog and
digital spaces.

1. Introduction

Without doubt our society faces developments in information technology that

might dramatically change the way we live. By now, unforeseen effects of
these tendencies affect political, social and cultural issues. Latest
developments force us to extend our understanding of "how things work",
"what things are" and of "how we redefine them" to meet the demands of the
future. Amongst other disciplines architecture always seemed to be located on
the border between art and science. It is no wonder that the profession hesitates
in coping with technologies that arose within the past few years with the
spread of the internet. Even if the net seems to be full of architectural
metaphors the influence of architects onto its shape has rather been dispensable.
242 D. DONATH, T. M. LOEMKER AND K. RICHTER

Nonetheless the definition of digital spaces and consequently their creation -

implying essential, yet evermore complex methods of orientation - requires
knowledge congruent to those evident in architectural practice (Donath and
Loemker, 1999). Based on the results of a research project with graduate
students at Bauhaus Universitaet Weimar this paper examines the utilization of
digital space as a space for real architectural projects. Complementary to
metaphors used to describe digital spaces, the focus is laid onto the creation of
usable architectural spaces within digital environments, whereas it was of
particular interest to explore if digital architecture would be suitable to exist as
an extension or substitution of a real physical space. According to the
discussions we tried to initiate, the research project was called design studio
“digital_space” -´boundary debates´.

2. Theoretical Context

Being occupied with digital media the terms analog and digital, real and virtual
as well as naturalness and artificiality play an important, superordinated, even
though oftentimes transfigured role. Whereas the terms analog and digital are
not difficult to comprehend in such a way that analog means something you
can actually touch and digital means something that consists of two different
electronic conditions, our understanding and interpretation of the terms real
and virtual is totally different. Contrary to our neutral conception of the terms
analog and digital our interpretation of real and virtual is often similar to right
and false, the natural and the artificial, something that is counterfeit. These
circumstances are founded in history, where artificial items were copied from
natural items to imitate or improve their qualities. Within living memory
human beings produce artificial materials that play an important role in
everyday life. Whilst these items were initially made to improve or replace
existing items, we are nowadays confronted with a development, that makes
the production of items possible whose natural equivalent does not exist. That
way, we fall back on materials today that do not imitate anymore but whose
qualities lead to a self-contained value. The hierarchy of substances and the
valence of the systems begin to dissolve. Almost everything, even the living,
can be plastified. (Geier, 1999)
to that, artificiality is a symptom of technical progress. Whilst we are
thinking about the artificial, we believe in our intuitive imagination of what
should be natural. It counts as genuine and original and it is sometimes brought
into the game as a desirable alternative. (Geier, 1999) During the design studio
“digital_space” the instructors were often confronted with this point-of-view,
which obviously dominated thinking and acting of the participating students. It
turned out that naturalness, the accustomed, and the touchable, emerged in
most designs submitted. In this sense "natural" and "artificial" are possibly the
 BOUNDARY DEBATES 243

most influential terms in relation to our understanding of how things are or

how things should be. In 1755 Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote in “A Dissertation
On the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality of Mankind”:

"It is not a trivial venture to distinguish what in the current nature of human
beings is natural and what is artificial and to perfectly recognize a condition
that doesn´t exist anymore, that may not have existed at all, that will probably
never exist and of which it is necessary to define accurate terms to judge upon
our current situation."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Within this sense we tried to make students understand that whilst talking
about artificiality we are usually oriented towards its opposite. It makes no
sense to use the word "artificiality" in an absolute sense. Only in conjunction
with our understanding of the ´natural´ and the term ´nature´ it becomes
significant. It is remarkable that temporal as well as systematic primacy is
adjudged to "nature" as well as to "the natural". The "artificial" is something
secondary, it was added to something that existed before and it is worse than
what existed before, it covers or replaces something natural. People trying to
get the essential element of something, talk about its nature: the nature of
humans, the nature of knowledge, the nature of language, the nature of nature.
If people are sure about something, they like to say: "naturally, that´s the way
it is.". Aristotle already favorited this linguistic usage, which influences us till
today.
This phraseology related to nature, by means of which ´nature´ and ´the
natural´ is adjudged a temporal priority was always myth. It invoked a
situation which has actually never existed for human beings and aimed at
something untouched, which could merely have the appearance of the natural.
It ignored, that nature was always a cultivated, molded and constructed world
of living and that conceptions of the natural in the historic process of
civilization took manifold shape. The natural, that goes without saying, is
always historic. (Geier, 1999) Thus, digital worlds could be prioritized in
comparison to analog worlds if the digital world has properties that are better
suited to fulfil the specific need of the user or client. In this sense the digital
world would just be a subsequent stage of nature.
It is not about time for manichaean thinking, where the natural is authentic,
good and genuine and the artificial is masking, bad and false. So does it still
make sense to draw the line between the natural and the artificial? Humans
understanding the reality of the artificial and the virtuality of the real do not
have to believe in unsullied naturalness; humans constructing artificial models
of reality do not necessarily have to lose sight of modeled reality.
Coming back to one of the intrinsic questions in the design of digital spaces,
i.e. whether the development of digital worlds is purely imitation of the real
analog world or if digital worlds will be revealed to architects and their clients
244 D. DONATH, T. M. LOEMKER AND K. RICHTER

the way that we can talk about a self-contained value, an independent syntax of
digital architecture, we wanted to explore if unprejudiced students would take
themselves the freedom to design architecture detached from most physical
constraints. One of the questions to be answered was if built architecture in the
real physical world will be extended by a component whose intrinsic
particularities are not based on imitation but on its immanent qualities?

3. Methodology

Within the framework of the design studio ´digital_space´ 28 graduate students

participated in lectures about technological, social, cultural, economical,
spatial and psychological aspects of digital environments. Additionally,
students were trained in various programs, administrable in the creation of
digital environments. Altogether 9 students canceled the design studio which
lasted 18 weeks. Each student had the opportunity to continuously contact
lecturers by email or in person. Personal discussions and consultations with
lecturers were on a very intense level.

3.1 THESIS

We set up a thesis stating that in cyberspace we can perform functions that are
not possible in solid architectural typologies. These functions were called
´extensions´. It was most important for us to make clear that these extensions
should provide functionality that either replace and improve or extend existing
architectural typologies. The main goal would have been to create functional
digital architectural typologies that have no equivalent in solid architecture,
whereas functional incorporates social, spatial, aesthetic or economical factors.
Furthermore we defined that digital space that could incorporate or house
digital architecture exists in any item working in digital. Thus possible
extensions designed by students would not have been limited to the regular
computer screen. As long as these items were driven by processing units, they
were suitable for being integrated into digital architecture. No limitations
concerning their size, shape or location applied. The aim was to merge
physically solid and digital architectural spaces to develop a fruitful direction
for new architectural scenarios providing broader functionality.

3.2 TASK

Students had to create a prototypical extension (digital architecture) to a solid

architectural typology. This extension might have been a digital stand-alone
prototype or a merger of solid and digital architectural spaces. It was the
students task to decide upon the usage of the extension. No defaults were made
to not discourage students from trying to be innovative.
 BOUNDARY DEBATES 245

3.3 PREPARATION

The “Pattern Language” (Donath, 2001) was chosen as a reference due to the
fact that it is an architectural theory that allows even laymen to design
functioning architectural and urban spaces. Previous semesters at Bauhaus
Universitaet evaluated if simple conditions as they were described in depth by
Christopher Alexander would have analogies or antagonisms in digital space.
As a result of these explorations students figured out that most attributes
existed, but that their digital counterparts might have alternative characteristics.
A description of regularities that apply within real and virtual architectural
spaces was developed describing qualities of solid and digital architecture. The
similarities found during the evaluation were provided as an aid for students to
find entry into solutions to be realized in digital space, thus querying the
realization of physical spaces and services (Anders, 1998).
Even if it was obvious that there is scope for development of digital spaces
that affect physical spaces e.g. by outplacing services to cyberspaces or by
displacing the material structure of a building by information systems, we were
pretty sure that students would have difficulties in developing appropriate
tasks and solutions. To avoid frustration at the very beginning of the design
studio we asked students from time to time to write short reports about
different tasks we issued. By this means we wanted to assure that lecturers and
students were talking about the same things. At the very beginning of the
course we realized that a third of the students were thinking in terms of
visualization and animation techniques of existing physical architecture whilst
talking about digital architectural representations. Teachers tried to clear these
misunderstandings in personal consultations with students.

3.4 MOTIVATION

One reason for developing a design studio alike was the actual working
situation in Germany. An up to date survey of ´ifo institute for promotion of
the economy´ implies that since 1995 the amount of building projects in
Germany decreased 10 per cent. Additionally the average building costs –
which are the basis for assessment of the architects´ fee – also decreased 10 per
cent. Within the same period the amount of architects sharing the shrinking
market increased 13 per cent. The employment situation of architects in
Germany will deteriorate further on. It is absolutely certain that architects have
to engage in new working scenarios to be able to autonomously refine their
core competence.
246 D. DONATH, T. M. LOEMKER AND K. RICHTER

4. Case Study

During the design studio ´digital-space´ students developed and designed 19

different projects. In a first overall impression of these projects, it seems that
about a third of those are capable of being integrated into superordinated
proposals. In so far we realized structures and hierarchies in analog/digital
merged spaces that allow classification in the sense of usual architectural and
urban planning.

4.1 PROJECTS

One of the most essential, yet superordinated projects is called “the tangible
city”. The tangible city is a conglomerate merger of the existing analog and a
proposed digital city. As a matter of course planning authorities administer the
analog classification of our cities, not being aware of the fact that an additional
digital classification would offer possibilities that could lead to an enrichment
of existing structures. Concepts for digital urban planning are not new and
during discussions with students we often referred to projects already initiated.
However, one has to determine that most projects do not consequently follow a
fruitful and innovative combination of analog and digital urban planning
strategies. Even though it could be determined that more and more economical
processes are shifted into digital domains, symbiosis are small. Realization and
conversion of networked cities is truly deplorable. The underlying concept of
the students proposal is as trivial as evident. The main goal is to strengthen the
existing economical structure of the city. By means of this it should be made
sure that all measures taken would serve the inhabitants of the particular city.
Top priority of this objective target creates an essential platform for common
activities of all parties involved.
“The tangible city” consists of a digital three-dimensional model of the
respective city. Against many expectations the model represents a direct copy
of physical reality. The distinctive feature of the tangible city is that the user or
inhabitant is able to generate so called “virtual marketplaces”. This means that
in reliance on his analyzed specific behavior in the digital and the analog city a
spatial situation would be created within which he would find the digital
representations of services and shops significant for himself. This “virtual
marketplace” to be created differs from user to user and differs from time to
time for each specific user. Its underlying structure is based on a
comprehensive database which could be managed and maintained by a central
service or planning authority. The virtual marketplace is accessible by regular
input/output devices like laptops or personal computers but should be
connected to any digital i/o-system capable to support wireless communication
techniques, i.e. blue tooth technology. Wireless networks would assure a
dynamic system in a state of perpetual evolution. Virtual and physical spaces
 BOUNDARY DEBATES 247

would be connected and could be accessed and driven with the aid of
organizers, cellular phones or stationary devices to be implemented into the
physical city structure. There is good reason to believe that municipalities
would invest into a system alike due to the fact that tax revenue might increase
because of sales within the analog / digital city environment. Following the
increasing digitalization of our cities and households many expect the contrary
development to happen. The tangible city yet, initiated and driven by mergers
of municipalities and residential tradesmen could serve as an adjusting
instrument. As made clear earlier, most concepts of the tangible city are not
new, most technology exists, the infrastructure could be developed – the
symbiosis however is unique and not yet realized. Networking nowadays
digital technology – from commodities to households to communication
resources like the internet – would lead to an enormous enrichment of
interaction within the cities. In contrary posture to those preaching
impoverishment of our cities due to information technology, the tangible city
would provide a network of digital and analog connections that would extend
but not displace regular urban planning.
As mentioned earlier the students proposals could be categorized in
superordinated, subordinated as well as mediating projects. One of the
primary superordinated projects dealt with the digital city as the constituent
part within the digital world. Most subordinated projects were suited for
integration into this city and students found common features so that
consolidated planning actions evolved. The priority assignment of mediating
projects, was to guarantee communication and data-transfer. Projects alike
included Control-Rooms or Docking-Stations which could be accessed through
the use of specific I/O devices. One of the most popular, but nonetheless
novelly projects was a library extension. The interesting factor was that the
solution provided by the student consisted of an existing physical library, a
physical extension that had to be build and accessorily a digital extension, thus
combining traditional and recent concepts within one physical building.

5. Discussion

Even if many hopes were associated with the “boundary debates project”, we
have to admit that not all possibilities given in digital space were taken
advantage of by students, integrated into a design course. Furthermore in
discussion with third parties we often realized that general conditions in digital
space, might they be as optimal as possible compared to those in analog
spaces – were rarely and mostly made no use of. In this sense the results might
be taken as sobering, in another sense they tend to prove the thesis and the
expectation that for the time being the architect prefers the naturalness of
analog space to the artificiality of digital space. Conceptual worlds as well as
248 D. DONATH, T. M. LOEMKER AND K. RICHTER

orientation in multidimensional digital environments do not reveal without

complying experiences and remain locked for most architects and users. The
reasons for this are multiplicative. Still, the computer has not lost its status as
an evocative object and still it is not able to fulfil hopes and longings humans
transfer into it. We could gather from discourses with our students that in
many cases computers fulfil contrary conceptions, that is to say that computers
and digital environments will not be able to meet the demands clients will
make to architects and architecture within the future. The results gained from
the course cannot be generalized. However, in terms of a philosophy that
bridges todays’ men and women with tomorrows technology (ETH, 2000) we
feel absolutely certain that occupation with digital technology will lead the
architect into the right direction that is assured of a good future. The outline of
the profession will change, classic activities and abilities will stand back
behind those, we would neither associate to the architectural profession nor to
any other profession existing today. Rapid progress of digital technology will
lead to a different definition of what we would indicate as architecture.
(Kurzweil, 1999) Within this decade digital and analog spaces will exist on a
level of equal weight and will permanently be used as a matter of course. If
these spaces will imply form and function of spaces we are acquainted with
today is questionable, or rather unambiguously to negate. Free of doubt we
will face multidimensional architectural shapes that could be accessed from
wherever you are at whatever time and whose nature differ from what we are
familiar with, because of their intrinsic building material – information. To
design and maintain dynamic buildings made of information and to relieve its
user in navigating through these buildings, will be a task for a new
professional species. It is undecided why we as architects should close our
mind already in the forefield of an evolution that has just begun, whose
outcome is still wide open, but whose beginnings are undoubtedly promising.
The professional future of university students is highly questionable, the
quality and content of education is often anachronistic, the potential of young
people is not utilized and even sometimes misdirected. The examination of
tomorrows technologies is inevitable for teachers and students. Architects
already lost many duties that originally belonged to their profession and to
their role as master-builders. We should have learned our lesson from the past,
otherwise the consequences would be more farreaching than ever before. There
is room for hope that academia will detect the sign of the times and that it sets
the course for future development architecture is in dire need of. The question
doesn´t arise if architects will be displaced from the position of mere
supporters, but if we would want to point the way ahead for others. In this case,
new and innovative concepts in education are required, which extend the
borders of the existing, which question reality and lead the profession into a
direction, whose initial we contingently missed already.
 BOUNDARY DEBATES 249

References

Anders, P: 1998, Envisioning Cyberspace, McGraw Hill.

ETH: 2000, Invitation to tender; http://www.ethworld.ch/html/competition.html,
ETH World, p. 7, Date: 01.02.2001
Geier, M: 1999, Fake, Rowohlts Enzyklopädie, Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH, Hamburg
Donath, D. and Loemker, T.: 2000, Illusion, frustration and vision in computer aided project
planning. - A reflection and outlook on the use of computing in architecture, Proceedings of
ACADIA 2000.
Donath, D.: 2001, Pattern language repository, Date: 01.02.2001
http://www.uni-weimar.de/architektur/InfAR/lehre/Entwurf/Patterns/patterns.html
Kurzweil, R: 1999, The Age of Spiritual Machines, Viking Press, London